NEW BOOK LOOKS AT CHANGING RELATIONSHIP FOR U.S., MEXICO

It focuses on immigration, trade, drug trafficking, water issues

TIJUANA 
Scholars from Tijuana and San Diego are key contributors to a new book that looks at the changing relationship between the United States and Mexico, examining issues such as immigration, trade, drug trafficking and water resources.

Among the recommendations of “Mexico and the United States: The Politics of Partnership,” are: increasing investment in infrastructure and education; promoting debate about whether to decriminalize marijuana possession; and collaborating on the management of aquifers beneath the U.S.-Mexico border.

“What we are stressing is that this is a new phase,” in the bilateral relationship, said Tonatiuh Guillén, president of Mexico’s Colegio de la Frontera Norte, and one of the book’s contributors. “This obliges societies and governments to respond in a coherent manner.”

During a presentation of the book on Wednesday at the Colegio’s Tijuana headquarters, Guillén and other authors said that factors such as growing economic interdependence, security issues after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and an upsurge in drug-related violence have changed the terms of the relationship between the two countries.

With a new president in Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, and the re-election of President Barack Obama last fall, the timing was right to re-examine the relationship, said Peter H. Smith, professor of political science and Latin American Studies at the University of California San Diego. Smith coedited the book with Andrew Selee, vice president of the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

“There is closer collaboration than ever between the United and Mexico in areas such as commerce and culture,” said Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, director of University of California San Diego’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and co-author of one of the chapters. “And yet the United States as a country lives in denial of the reality of the state of its relationship with Mexico.”

One chapter, “Drugs, Crime and Violence,” by University of San Diego assistant professor David Shirk together with Luis Astorga of the Autonomous University of Mexico, urges that the United States and Mexico lead a hemisphere-wide campaign to reduce drug demand.